I. Environmental Protection Legislation and System
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates, "The
State protects and improves the environment in which people live and the
ecological environment. It prevents and controls pollution and other public
hazards." Since the PRC was founded in 1949, the National People's Congress
(NPC) and its Standing Committee have formulated nine laws on environmental
protection and 15 laws on the protection of natural resources. Since 1996, the
State has formulated or revised laws on environmental protection, such as those
on prevention and control of water pollution, marine environment protection,
prevention and control of air pollution, prevention and control of noise
pollution, prevention and control of solid waste pollution, evaluation of
environmental impact, and prevention and control of radioactive pollution, as
well as laws closely related to environmental protection, such as those on
water, clean production, renewable energy, agriculture, grassland and animal
husbandry. The State Council has formulated or revised over 50 administrative
regulations, such as the Regulations on Environmental Protection Management of
Construction Projects, Rules for the Implementation of the Law on the Prevention
and Control of Water Pollution, Regulations on the Safety Management of
Dangerous Chemicals, Regulations on the Management of Collection and Use of
Waste Discharge Fees, Measures on the Management of Dangerous Waste Operation
Licenses, Regulations on the Protection of Wild Plants, and Regulations on the
Safety Management of Agricultural Genetically-modified Organisms. It has
promulgated documents with similar power to laws and regulations, such as the
Decision on Implementing the Idea of Taking the Scientific Outlook on
Development and Strengthening Environmental Protection, Opinions for Quickening
the Development of a Cyclical Economy, and Circular on the Recent Work of
Effectively Building a Resource-efficient Society. Relevant departments of the
State Council, local people's congresses and local people's governments have,
within the limit of their powers, formulated and promulgated over 660 central
and local rules and regulations in order to implement the national laws and
administrative regulations on environmental protection.
China has established a system of environmental protection standards at both
the national and local levels. National-level environmental protection standards
include environmental quality standards, pollutant discharge (control)
standards, and standards for environmental samples. Local environmental
protection standards include environmental quality and pollutant discharge
standards. By the end of 2005, the State had promulgated over 800 national
environmental protection standards. The municipalities of Beijing and Shanghai,
and the provinces of Shandong and Henan had promulgated over 30 local
environmental protection standards. China has constantly strengthened checks on
the enforcement of environmental legislation, and improved administrative law
enforcement. In recent years, the State has conducted checks on the enforcement
of laws on environmental protection, and the prevention and control of air
pollution, water pollution and solid waste pollution, so as to push forward
pollution control in key areas. China's criminal law has special provisions on
destruction of environmental resources. The State has promulgated the Interim
Regulations on the Punishment of Violations of Environmental Protection Laws or
Disciplines, and put in place a responsibility system of administrative law
enforcement in the area of environmental protection. For three years in a row,
the State has launched special environmental protection campaigns to rectify
enterprises that have discharged pollutants in violation of the law and to
protect people's health. It has dealt with over 75,000 environmental law
violation cases, and had 16,000 enterprises closed down for having discharged
pollutants in violation of the law. More than 10,000 warnings have been issued
to environment polluters, obliging them to remedy the problems under government
supervision. The State has also conducted special checks on the enforcement of
laws regarding mining areas eco-environmental protection and maritime
environmental protection, and has dealt with a number of law violations.
China has implemented an environmental management system, whereby governments
at all levels are responsible for the environmental quality of the areas within
their jurisdiction, the competent administrative departments in charge of
environmental protection have the power of overall supervision and management,
while other relevant departments exercise such supervision and management
functions according to the provisions of the law. In 1998 the Chinese government
changed the name of the State Environmental Protection Bureau to the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), and elevated it to the
ministerial level. Thus, SEPA became an organization directly under the State
Council to be responsible for exercising overall supervision and management of
China's environmental protection work. The State has set up a national
inter-ministry joint conference system for environmental protection and
established representative offices for regional environmental supervision, in an
effort to strengthen coordination and cooperation between departments and
regions. The governments of all the provinces (autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the Central Government), cities and counties have
set up organs responsible for addressing and coordinating environmental
protection issues. There are now 3,226 environmental protection administration
departments at different levels all over China, with 167,000 people engaging in
environmental administration, monitoring, scientific research, publicity and
education. There are 3,854 environmental supervision and environmental law
enforcement organs with more than 50,000 staff members. Environmental protection
organs are also found in some government departments for comprehensive affairs
or resource administration departments, as well as in most large and
medium-sized enterprises, responsible for their own environmental protection
work. More than 300,000 people are employed by these organs.
